The only half-decent version of the Gloucestershire Wassail I could find. There are about a thousand choral attempts at it, but for me that is the opposite of what a good wassail should be.
Of course, in the Old World of Warhammer, there is no Christmas, but every race has it’s own way of marking the Winter Solstice. For the Dwarves, it is the opportunity to finish off last year’s ale. It is more than an opportunity; it is a holy task. The harvest of the past Autumn has been laid in enormous vats and barrels, lazily fermenting. Soon it will be ready to drink, but first it must be transferred into kegs and casks for storage and transport. So it is that at the Solstice, the Dwarves make a point of emptying their kegs to make way for the new ale, in a tradition known as Keg End.
A good Dwarven ale keg can be centuries old, and will have been reused every year, with each previous brew still lending subtle notes of flavour to the new ale. The oldest kegs are prized possessions, honoured above even hoarding gold, having been passed down through several generations of a clan. In the ale that is poured from them can still be tasted the slightest echo of the brews of old.
The festival is therefore not named for being the end of the keg, but from the tradition that, in order to get every last drop, the keg is turned up on its end. To waste the smallest amount would be an insult to the ancestors, and is considered an ale-crime. This is why Dwarves often challenge manlings with “Are ye goin’ ta finish that?”, before, indeed, finishing it. The ancestors demand no less.
Continuity and tradition are central to the Dwarven character. The true meaning of the Keg End celebration is to welcome the ale of the New Year, but to always remember that the new is born from the old, and carries within itself all that was best of that which came before it.